Until Our Hearts Catch Up

Aug 20, 2015 by Jeanette Hanscome

Almost two years ago, I started attending a class for women who, like me, were trying to make sense of someone else’s choices and the reality that our lives would be altered forever because of them. As suspected, I felt old wounds open. I also learned valuable things that left me thinking, I’ve heard this dozens of times from countless friends. Why do I feel like I’m hearing it for the first time?

I knew God wanted me to take certain messages in in a new way. My heart clearly had not gotten the message yet.

It finally did, just in time for me to discover new areas of “I know this in my head, but the rest of me still needs some convincing.” For example, when God’s Word tells me something that I know is true but experiences with people have told a different story, it’s easy to let the mean voices override His.

Once again I’m reminded that our heads and our hearts work on separate time lines. No matter how intelligent we are, or how consistently we pray, read our Bibles and seek God, our hearts can be slow learners, especially when life has contradicted His kindness. Until our hearts catch up, we tend to expect the same treatment from God as we’ve experienced from people. Recently, I was reminded how kind God is in allowing us to take something into our heads long before our hearts can grasp what He is trying to tell us. In that time, He sends the message again and again, until we finally wake up and realize, I think I have only been pretending to believe this, or I’m not sure I ever really believed this, but I want to, and suddenly understand what has been holding us back from moving forward or trusting Him. I’m finding that it is actually very freeing to say, “God, my heart hasn’t quite grasped this one yet, so show me that what you say is true.” I picture Him replying, “Now that you’re finally being honest, I can help you.”

Is there an area of your life where you are still waiting for your heart to accept what you head already knows? Ask God to help you trust His time line knowing that He reveals each truth that we need at the exact moment we are ready and able to receive it.